Branson girls finally see some competition

The Branson girls rolled through the regular season and most of the playoffs, rarely feeling a true challenge along the way. The Bulls were truly tested in their last two games, however, before pulling out tough victories over Gateway and Rincon Valley Christian. The closer-than-usual results could be a sign of holes in the Bulls’ armor, but it’s more likely they just finally met a couple of teams who could handle their pressure. (Gateway couldn’t handle the pressure, actually, but made up for it with extremely high energy play.) RVC had bigger guards who could handle the ball well and keep their turnovers low, which took away the Bulls’ primary defensive weapon in Lauren Polansky (although she still had four steals). That’s three teams now (MC, Justin-Siena and RVC) who have shown that the best way to attack Branson is with big guards who can handle the ball well. But considering Branson bested RVC in both an up-tempo score-a-thon first half, and in a slow, slugfest second half, it doesn’t look like any one style of play can upset the Bulls’ run to state.